Hello Roy here. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to the Roy Green Show ad-free on Amazon music included with Prime. Yesterday we were talking about Alberta and the oil and the pipelines and the issues the provinces facing and the issues separation with the specter of separation and the province. Yesterday Alberta bring our Jason Kenney announced his government's fair new deal panel to advance the province's interests, like pipelines, the creation of Alberta revenue agency possibly and withdrawing from the Canada pension plan, all of which go back as in place.
But again, Mr. Kenney rejected the idea of Alberta separation from Canada. Wayne Brack is political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary. He's also the author of Canada, the provinces and the global nuclear revival.
Professor Brack, good to have you back on the show. Yeah, good afternoon Roy. So what do you make of what the premier said and what he's suggesting? What's this fair deal panel really have as a mandate?
So the day after the federal election, Jason Kenney spoke in the Alberta legislature and later had a press conference where he teased out the creation of this panel and he said it would be led by a prominent in Alberta. And then I was saying at the time to my colleagues, I go, I got a loonie that says it's going to be pressed in manning. Sure enough, it's pressed in manning. One of the bad.
Yeah, I went with that. It was a pretty easy bet. Just the way it was laid out. And so yesterday, coincidentally at the Manning conference in red beer, Jason Kenney outlines this fair deal panel that will be doing public hearings and consultation with experts really quickly, like starting in a week with a report in March.
And it is wide ranging. If this is fully implemented for a long way from that, it would really reshape not just Alberta's place in Confederation, but Canada as a whole. Would other provinces know to emulate this and go down this path on separate pension plans, separate provincial police forces that Ontario and Quebec already have a provincial constitution, a firearms officer, independent tax collection agency and the like. But this didn't just come out of left field.
There is a history here and a very important history. So in 2001, in the aftermath of Cretch and Victor overstock, probably in the 2000 election, a group of prominent conservative Albertans, including Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan, Ted Morton, Rainer and off. What was called a firewall letter to Premier Ralph Klein at the time and outlined all of these. Klein largely rejected them, but did a couple years later for an MLA committee to investigate the ideas and that they said they would be too costly and they didn't pursue it.
Fast forward almost 20 years later, those same ideas are coming forward. But this time with the full weight of the provincial government. I think what Kenny has done though is he has completely cut off at the knees, the separatist movement and the legs. I think all of the political oxygen in this province is now going to be directed at looking at ways to increase Alberta's autonomy within Canada as opposed to Alberta leading Canada.
And so I think he's effectively dealt with them, but I don't think the panel would have been created if there hadn't been that separatist impetus. Isn't that interesting that one gave life to the other and the other then sucks the oxygen out of the first, not the first time that's happened. I know that having lived in Quebec, I know that when Quebec assumed more power and Stephen Piper granted Quebecers the status of being a nation, not Quebec, but Quebecers. That meant a lot in that province and it did a lot to weaken the separatist movement, particularly the party in the Black Quebecois.
So this is a very interesting move and you say in March the results of the report are expected. Well, we'll certainly. And Kenny has also said if they made any changes in these areas, it would require a referendum and a ratification vote by Albert. A lot to look forward to and a lot to watch.
Dwayne always great to talk to you. Thank you so much for the time. Okay, you're welcome, Mark. All the best.
Dwayne Bratt, political science professor at Mount Royal University, his book is Canada, the provinces and the global nuclear revival. If you want to hear more, subscribe to the Roy Green Show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find your favorites. And if you like what you hear, leave us a review and tell a friend. I'm Roy Green.
Have a great weekend.